Pop Culture: The?happiness of Pursuit

Saturday

Holiday time is upon us. That means parties, and parties can mean only one thing:?Trivial Pursuit.

Holiday time is upon us. That means parties, and parties can mean only one thing:?Trivial Pursuit.

Coincidentally, Trivial Pursuit has released its 25th Anniversary Edition.

Hard to believe, a quarter-century and 96 niche editions later, the old trivia standby is still the best Q&A form of intellect-fraud-expsosure on the planet.

It all started with the original, the Genus Edition, which some people misread as “Genius Edition.”?If you could find several of these people as competitors, you knew you were destined for an evening of trivia dominance.

If “they” were “you,” you were in for a long night.

That’s because there are two basic types of Trivial Pursuit players. We’ll call them Slice A and Slice B.

Slice A’s favorite Web site is Wikipedia, they read Popular Mechanics for the articles and think “Hooked on Phonics” has potential as a video game.

Slice B’s are sane.

Slice A’s like to erupt, midway through a party, with, “Hey, let’s play some Trivial Pursuit!”?

Slice B’s dread the point of the party when someone says, “Hey, let’s play some Trivial Pursuit!”

Slice A’s are intelligent people who like everyone to know it.

Slice B’s are also intelligent but loathe pointless competition, and also have fantasies about duct-taping Slice A’s mouths shut.

If you are a Slice B, the holidays can be an excruciating exercise in avoidance tactics. On the way to a get-together, B’s rehearse possible responses in the event the dreaded “T” word comes up.

“Why don’t we play an exciting game of strip Scrabble instead?”?

“We could watch that obscure Jimmy Stewart movie that I bet you’ve never seen.”

“Look, there’s Rudolph in the backyard, and I think he’s drunk!”

It’s worse if Slice B is a spouse or close friend of Slice A. Slice A will hound Slice B into playing T-Pursuit, regardless.

“Come on, it doesn’t matter who wins ... it’s all for fun.”?

This same person scoffs each time an opponent misses a question.

“Of course Zhu Yuanzhang, not Zhu Yunwen, was emperor of the Ming Dynasty from 1368 to 1398. Sheesh. Why can’t I ever get the easy questions?”

Slice B’s may not realize you can pass yourself off as a Slice A. Here are some tips to do so, make it a more pleasant experience, and maybe even give your team an edge.

1. The most important step comes before the game begins: fighting over the color of your gamepiece. Do not budge on this. If someone says, “We’re orange,” declare, in the tantrummish tone of a 4-year-old, “If we can’t be orange, I ain’t playin’.”

2. If you answer a question incorrectly, then hear the correct response, say, “Doggone it, I?was gonna say that!!” Be sure to include the “doggone it,” so as not to appear arrogant.

3. If another team has a significant lead, stall. One way to do that: jam the little pie wedge sideways into a gamepiece, then insist someone get a steak knife out of the kitchen drawer to pry it out before play continues.

4. Each time you get a question right, yell, “Yahtzee!” and playfully punch the nearest opponent in the arm.

Follow these tips, and the holidays will whiz past painlessly, like a checkout lane on Black Friday.

Next week:?How to cheat at Balderdash.

Sturgis Journal

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